A haunted house, trapped by the changgwi’s lure.
Is anyone there…?
A voice called out again from outside the front door of the abandoned house.
This time, it was a low male voice.
“No, no…! W-Who is it this time…”
The section chief clamped his hands over his mouth, stifling a scream.
Please open the door…
“……”
“A-A dead person? Who is it? Who’s out there? Ahhh… L-let’s run! Let’s get out of here!”
It’s so cold out here. Hmm.
“This time, I absolutely won’t answ—aaah??”
I moved toward the door and pulled the handle.
“AAHHHH?!”
When the door opened, what appeared was…
“Whoa, I thought I was gonna die… Thanks…”
A human, in decent shape, with a slender build, light-colored hair, and wearing a faded navy-blue uniform.
“……?!”
“Section Chief Lee Byeongjin, please greet him.”
I gave a respectful nod.
“This is the Sergeant of Security Unit 3.”
“……??? …?!”
Yes, it was him.
The sergeant of Security Team’s Unit 3, who had been pulled into this ghost story alongside me.
‘His face looks about ready to burst.’
Section Chief Lee alternated between pointing at me and the security sergeant, his face beet red, before he snapped his finger and let out a bizarre groan.
“H-How… why…?!”
Well, isn’t it obvious?
‘You’re the one who explained it yourself…’
– Every single night, it’s someone else—a dead family member, friend, neighbor—coming to visit, calling out in their voices…
And they only come once a night.
Incidentally, similar statements had been blatantly recorded in the <Dark Exploration Records>.
When someone’s dragged into an abandoned house by the changgwi, every night it appeared at the door, pleading in the voices of dead loved ones, subjecting its prey to mental torment and confusion.
‘When they say every night , they mean it’s a daily cycle.’
But I couldn’t exactly tell Section Chief Lee, ‘There’s a magical record supporting my theory,’ now could I?
“Intuition.”
“……”
The section chief looked strangely blank.
In any case, since I was right, let’s leave it at that.
After verifying that the security sergeant had entered the abandoned house, I promptly closed the door and secured the handle.
Just looking outside was enough to send chills down my spine.
“Thank you…”
“No problem, sir.”
It was shocking enough that this guy had made it all the way to the door without being dragged away by the changgwi, but…
‘Well… he’s part of the Security Team, after all.’
The real surprise was that he hadn’t come alone.
He was supporting someone.
“…Who’s that?”
The sergeant answered with a bright smile.
“Look, I found the missing person!”
“…The missing person is this person, though.”
“Oh. Got confused…”
“……”
They’re even different genders…
I checked the person that the sergeant had casually dropped onto the floor.
It was a stranger.
In a very disheveled state, she sank to the ground of the abandoned house and began to wail, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings.
“Uwahhhh! It’s over. It’s all over!”
“She just keeps saying that. Ah, this place is better… I woke up earlier in some place that felt like a shaman’s hut… it was cold, dark, and damp, and I didn’t like it there.”
“AAAACK!”
“……”
‘This is a disaster.’
All I wanted was a sensible companion…
‘I miss my D-squad superiors…’
Still, I took a closer look at the crying person. She was dressed in a now filthy white gown, with a name tag on the chest.
[Go Seonha]
‘Huh?’
I immediately pulled out a small business card.
It was the one tucked in the old book labeled Path to Survival.
───
Go Seonha
Department of History, Joo Kang University
───
On the back, it had the words, Leaving tomorrow.
“By any chance, if you’re the person on this card, did you try out the instructions from the book?”
“Mm-hm…”
The woman nodded, sniffling.
“Yes… but it was all futile.”
“Huuh! Wait! What do you mean f-futile? Does that even make sen—”
“Exactly what I said.”
With a dark expression, she pulled something out of her coat.
“That—”
“If you go about a hundred steps from here, as written in that book, there’s a shrine. I’m pretty sure it’s the ‘shrine’ mentioned in the book.”
“……”
“And this, I copied down from the woodblock there.”
She glanced at me with a tired expression.
“Looks like you read the book thoroughly, too… do you study Korean history? This was written in a style from hundreds of years ago…”
No. I just happen to have a monster friend…
“Ah, anyway!! So if we just do exactly what’s written on that wooden tablet, shouldn’t it work?! Why do you keep saying it’s impossible, and crying about it…”
“Because it is impossible!!”
“……!”
“Look, ahjussi, I’m not an idiot. I tried to follow what was written on the woodblock. It said to gather three plums, crush them in a cup, and sprinkle it outside—I did all of that! I did everything, but…”
“……”
Go Seonha took a breath, staring into the air, then held up the back side of the paper she had pulled out, as if to show it to us.
“Please read this.”
Braun, catching on, began to read aloud.
– ‘Prepare a song to offer to Sangun-nim. The more it is known among people, the more effective it will be. Write the lyrics down and place them in the incense holder, sing loudly, clap every step, and bow every thirty steps.’
“A song for Sangun-nim…”
“Yes! That’s it!”
Go Seonha’s eyes widened as she asked urgently,
“Sangun-nim is a tiger, right? Then what immediately comes to mind? Any song related to tigers, anything that praises a tiger, whether it’s a children’s song or a folk tune.”
“Uh, well…”
Section Chief Lee stammered, then began,
“In the mountain… the great hero…”
“Right, on the tiger’s birthday—yes, that one! I thought of it too, and that’s what I tried to use…”
(T/N: Here’s the song: https://youtu.be/SxAjWRNZZgM?t=10 )
Go Seonha dropped her head.
“…But it says, once a song has been used, it can’t be used again.”
“……!”
“The incense holder was already stuffed with used lyrics! Of course Mountain Hero was already there…!”
Good grief.
“It says, ‘Sangun-nim is fickle and enjoys songs, so he will not accept the same one twice.’ Sure, in folktales, tigers smoke pipes and dance, but this… this is…!”
Seething, Go Seonha shouted into the air, then turned to us with a desperate look.
“Children’s songs, folk songs, instrumental pieces… is there anything else that comes to mind besides Mountain Hero ? Anything, just anything…”
Nothing.
“There’s nothing, right? Of course, there isn’t!”
Go Seonha clutched her head in frustration.
“I’m not a Korean music major, and it’s not like I can just look it up somewhere, oh, no…”
“……”
I didn’t know the songs couldn’t be repeated, either.
Even in the <Dark Exploration Records>, there were two or three records of people performing rituals in places they were lured to by the changgwi, each time using a different song.
There were everything from folk games to instrumental pieces…
‘I thought the different songs were just something the collective wisdom on the wiki included for fun.’
I didn’t realize there was such a specific detail hidden there.
And even if I wanted to use the songs listed on the wiki, only the titles were provided—no lyrics, no melodies.
‘Damn it.’
The air in the abandoned house grew even colder.